When I was little

Eloethan - oh lor' - Arthur Mee's Children's Newspaper - so worthy it creaked! As indeed did Arthur Mee, I imagine...

nanej - "I just find it sad that most of the comics today are simply a commercial extension of TV/film"

You're right, of course - but then we had Radio Fun and Film Fun in the forties and fifties!

My father bought the comics for us: when very young it was Playbox and Chicks' Own -then we graduated to Mickey Mouse Weekly (2d) - Dandy and Beano (of course) - then I would swap one of those for Knockout - finally The Wizard (which was all text stories). That would be traded for Champion, Hotspur, Rover... and Dad would pass his library books to me before taking them back, so aged eleven I was into Damon Runyon, Rex Stout and to a lesser degree, Zane Gray.

The girls I knew favoured Sunny Stories, I recall...

Growing older is mandatory, growing up is optional.

cathy I wasn't stopped from buying comics like Bunty, Jackie, (was there a comic called Petticoat?) etc. etc., but my Dad was always very disapproving and used to get me things like Look and Learn and the Children's Newspaper. He was only trying to get me interested in something more "worthy", but, thinking back, it had the reverse effect at the time.

If you feel you want to experience what you missed out on in childhood, I don't see why you shouldn't. Perhaps we should all do that.

I used to love Norman Wisdom films. Watching them now, I think they're very silly but there are still bits that make me laugh. I've still got an old diary in which I wrote in great detail about going to see "In Search of the Castaways" with Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier.

There were no comics in our house until my father came home from the war, as well as Girl and the Micky Mouse comic we also got Dandy and Beano, but whether the last two were for us or our father I now have severe doubts!

At school the nuns didn't like comics but as some girls parents sent them Girl, School Friend and another whose name I cannot remember, they were tolerated. Like you Galen Lady C made the rounds in a brown paper cover.

DGD is just coming up to 6 and DD and I are finding that a good excuse to revive our love of the books by E Nesbit and Frances Hodgson Burnet and as she loves her ballet DDiL and I cannot wait to reread Noel Streatfeild.

When I was at home I had Robin and then progressed to Girl. When away at school comics were not allowed but I was allowed to have Look and Learn - oh what I would have given for a copy of Jackie or some other totally 'unsuitable' magazine! (that was before a brown paper covered copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover did the rounds of the boarding house )
I plan to read all my collection of Heidi books before I pass them on to the GD's. I was Heidi, sleeping on a straw mattress, following Peter up the mountain with the goats and befriending Clara

It is never too late to have a happy childhood. Enjoy!

How wise Zen.

Give in to your inner child I say! Life is too short to be grown up ALL the time !

You're never too old for anything. Why do we have to be sensible and grown up? I've done my being forced to be grown up bit with my ex so for the last few years I've been growing down. It's much more fun.

Recently bought a DVD of the first film I ever saw(I was 5 at the time).It was Heidi with Shirley Temple. Sat and watched it with my DD who was so impressed with it that she bought Shirley Temple's autobiography when she spotted it in a charity shop. I shall be reading it with great interest when she has finished with it. My ''comic'' was the Girl's Chrystal-few pictures in only two colours and lots of lovely stories.

My sister and I had one comic each but we used to swap with others in the street. the boy next door got the Eagle so I read that too. DH's uncle had a newsagents and all the leftover comics were left at his Grannies where he and his 72 cousins could read to their heart's content, I wish I had known him sooner

I was very lucky as my grandpa worked for DC Thompson and so he brought comics home and pockets full of the freebies too!
I just find it sad that most of the comics today are simply a commercial extension of TV/film and with no characters /stories in their own right. Also the plastic tat stuck on the front to tempt buyers are not genuine freebies as they are on every publication and contribute to the cost!

I am currently collecting the model horses I couldn't afford when I was at school. (Of course they are "collectables" now - not toys) I'm working on the theory that I haven't got that many years left so I might as well have things I want. I do find my grandson a wonderful excuse for buying books and comics and re watching favourite children's films.

Isn't it rather like those TV programmes where they took elderly celebrities back to the fashions and surroundings of their youth and found that they were really rejuvenated? I think giving in to your inner child probably pushes old age aside for a while.

No! Of course not! age I feel is more life experience.I remember,maybe 20 years ago,I bought myself a large box of crayons and a coloring book.I loved it as a child.I have to admit it didnt thrill me like I thought it would and I'm not sure I even finished a picture. a few years ago I found on eBay a golden book I had as a child and bought it. It's not often little things can bring such pleasure. buy the magazine or at least skim through it!

We weren't allowed comics like the Dandy and the Beano. I used to read them in my music teacher's waiting room and at the dentist's. On Sundays we went round to Granny's and read the comic strips - Oor Wullie and The Broons - in the Sunday Post. And we too were allowed to have The Girl. I remember the first ever issue and getting a 'gold' badge of the Girl logo. We also had the School Friend. What was the strip on the front of that? Was it the Silent Three?

It was about as stupid as me wanting eyelashes for my car headlights! I compromised and bought angel wings and halo to surround the boot logo instead. It is easy to forget how old we are isn't it? I love the girls' magazines too, I was only allowed 'The Girl' when I was young, because it was sensible!